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mcmoRiAL 



GEORGE GILMAN FOGG. 




OP 

/ 
GEORGE GILMAN FOGG. 

THE ADDRESS OF 

REV. AUGUSTUS WOODBURY 

AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES, OCT. 8, 1881, 

AND 

A TRIBUTE BY 

FRANK B. SANBORN. 




CONCORD, N. H. : 

PRINTED BY THE REPUBLICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION. 
1882. 



GEORGE GILMAN FOGG 

Was born at Meredith Centre, N. H., May 26, 18 13, and died at Con- 
cord, N, H., October 5, 1881. He was the son of David and Hannah 
Gilman (Vickery) Fogg. His father was a native of Pittsfield, and 
his mother of Exeter. He was fitted for college at the New Hampton 
Institution, and graduated at Dartmouth college in the class of 1839. 
He studied law with Judge Lowell, at Meredith, and at the Harvard Law 
School, and commenced the practice of his profession at Gilmanton 
Iron Works in 1842. 

In 1846 he was a member of the House of Representatives, and took 
an active part in the election of John P. Hale as senator. Up to this 
time a Democrat, he now became a prominent member of the Free Soil 
party, retaining, however, his belief in the principles of the Democratic 
party, as it was then constituted, so far as they were not affected by the 
question of slavery. During this session he was elected Secretary of 
State, holding the office for one year. This necessitated his removal 
to Concord, which was thenceforward his home. 

, Mr. Fogg was practically the founder of the Independent Democrat, 
a newspaper which exerted a great influence upon New Hampshire 
politics. It was started in Manchester, May i, 1845, but removed to 
Concord in June following. Mr. Fogg did not nominally assume con- 
trol till February, 1846, but he contributed to its columns from the 
first. From this time to 1861 this newspaper absorbed the best ener- 
gies of his life. In 1856 he made a trip to Kansas as Clerk of the 
Kansas Commission of the United States House of Representatives. 
He was Law Reporter of New Hampshire from 1855 to 1859. He was a 
delegate from New Hampshire to the convention which nominated 
Abraham Lincoln in i860, and Secretary of the Republican National 
Executive Committee in the campaign which followed. After the Re- 



publican party obtained control of the state, he was also for several 
years State Printer, that position, according to custom, being always 
given to prominent editors. In 1861 he was appointed by President 
Lincoln Minister for the United States to Switzerland, holding the office 
till after the assassination of the President in 1865. 

After his return from Europe, he was appointed in 1867 United 
States Senator, by Gov. Smyth, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. 
Daniel Clark, who had been appointed Judge of the U. S. District 
Court for New Hampshire. 

He resumed editorial labor in 1S67, though not, as before, taking sole 
charge of the paper, finally severing his official connection in "1872. 
From this time, to his death, he only wrote occasional articles for the 
press. 

Mr. Fogg was a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, 
succeeding Rev. Dr. Bouton as Corresponding Secretary; trustee of 
Bates College, Maine, receiving from that institution the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Laws. 

He was stricken with paralysis, September ir, 1879, from which he 
only partially recovered, and which finally culminated in his death. 

Mr. Fogg was never married. He left legacies to Dartmouth col- 
lege, the school at New Hampton, the Unitarian church in Concord, 
with which he was connected, the school-district where he was born,' 
and to various charitable institutions in Concord, in addition to lega- 
cies to his kindred and friends. He had previously made a liberal gift 
to Bates college. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 



' j * HE past season has been one of unexampled anxiety 
■^ and trouble. I doubt if human history can furnish a 
parallel to the period, in all its aspects and features. The 
cordial sympathy of the civilized world has been expressed 
with our own national sorrow and bereavement, and mes- 
sages of fraternal feeling and good-will have come to us 
from the other side of the sea — from the other side of the 
globe. Two continents have mingled their tears and their 
prayers, and for once, at least, the nations of the world 
have felt the closeness of the ties of a common brother- 
hood. There has been a wonderful deepening of the re- 
ligious sentiment — a wonderful strengthening of the moral 
sense of mankind. How earnestly have we prayed that 
the cup might pass from us. " If it be possible," said Jesus, 
in his own great agony. "If it be possible!" But it was 
not possible that it should pass, except we drank of it ; and 
then the expression of our hearts was, — " Nevertheless, not 
our own will, but God's." We turn to Him who can alone 
give us the comfort and strength we need, and bow before 
Him in submission and trust. So we have prayed for a sick 
friend, or a sick child, crying out of the depths unto the 
Lord. But let us not feel that our prayers have been un- 
answered. The divine way is better than our way ; the 
divine will is better than our will ; — and when we come to 
understand that the divine way and the divine will are al- 
ways best, and when we bring ourselves into full accord and 
acquiescence with the divine disposition for us, we are re- 



c^vh^ £roiB the divine hand a Uessin^ and from the divine 
!^ve 2. frLl! srd ccHn^^ete answer tn cwerj potion. 

-' HI dot God idesses k oar good, 
Asd foUiest good is fll; 
Aad an k ligfat tbat seems roost vron^ 
If it be Hxs dear «in ! ~ 

It is in this spirit ci submission and trust that we gather 
here to-daj. Dnring the 3~ear w^hich is now drawing near 
its end, {^ominent vaea, in all departments of human ac- 
tivity, have been taken from the midst <rf their earthly la- 
bors to thdr immortal rest. The ciivjes of business, the 
univcr-!' . . the church, the state, have been deprived of 
sme brightest ornaments and th^ most useful 

ave fallen without warning ; some, with 
; _ ' -' :'- ess ; some, after months of strug- 

g- ^ 3 insidious disease which has 

at last carried the citadel of 

. .^z president is a national be- 

- was but latdy called to mourn 

I - : distmguished and best-beloved citizen — 

G: — : of the soldiers of New 



vto 



nity, wbert _- and in whose ^r ; ias 

borne so i' ;r yet bear rec:i2-. 

First, I ; —an of positive convic- 
tions. In these c: : and doubt and de- 



/ 



nial seem attractive to many mines, it is s^methirg to have 
known a man who nnnly held to what he felt and knew to 
be true and right. That which he believed, he wrote and 
spoke. Perbaps in the early dajs, which were days of con- 
flict, some of his friends may hare thought that he spoke 
and wrote in too severe terms. I have mysdf suggested 
to him that gentler words might sometimes be used wiA 
equally good advantage to his canse. Bat be always felt 
that he was engaged in a great struggle, in whidi it was 
necessary to give and take hard blows ; and it is but just to 
say of him that he was as ready to take as to give. He ex- 
pected to carry some wounds and scars out of the batd^ 
and while the contest was going on I think .i: :it really 
enjoyed it. Those of us who can look ba ^ 

well-fought fields, can even now take some i - - 

remembrance. We know that wherever the wir:i t is 
waged most hotly, our friend was foronost. 
service. The weapons may not always have _ = - - = 

finest temper on either ade, but there were alvny; ;riv= 
hearts and strong hands to wield them. A trie ' e 

at Washington made the remark to me a : : ^" 

since the anti-slavery question had beer. 
but little principle in politics. However :-i: r. is 

quite certain that while the question was : tt 

were important principles at stake, and ^'r _ _ _ . 

positive in his convictions as to where tr - . : it niz- 

tCT lay. Being thus positive, he entered : ^ : 

controversy with all his heart and sotL r _ ; 

joice in the victory which he had largely :o win. 

Had be been taken in the midst <rf th — days, it 

would have been felt by all that a str: ^ i 'alien. 

He was known throughout the countr\" 1 : "v lon- 

victions, a resolute purpose, and an i 

joved the confidence andv - :-; : r 

affairs and station- In thii . :; r : 

that his was the clear mind ir - _ i:^- '~^- 



8 

directed those movements and counter-movements which, 
however ineffective of results they may have seemed, were 
yet really very efficient in bringing on the final triumph. It 
is the providential arrangement, that some men shall sow 
the seed, and other men reap the harvests ; that some shall 
fight the battle, and others enjoy the fruits of victory. It is 
the sign of human weakness, and perhaps of human in- 
gratitude, that those who reap and enjoy should forget those 
who sowed and fought. The present generation can hardly 
conceive of the intensity with which the controversy was 
carried on. But now I think that both sides are satisfied 
with the decision that was made. The strife has at last 
ended, and former foes have long since shaken hands in rec- 
onciliation, and forgiven whatever there was to forgive on 
either part. 

This positiveness of conviction gave to our friend a cer- 
tain strength and solidity of character. He indulged in no 
petty vices. He took large and serious views of life. He 
felt the sense of obligation to make the most and best of 
himself. He was truthful in thought, clear in speech, and 
forceful in action. However much any one might differ 
from his opinions, no one ever questioned the honesty with 
which he held them, and the earnestness with which he 
served the cause he espoused. There was nothing for him 
to conceal. He was open as the day. The structure of his 
character was based on solid and substantial foundations, 
and his manhood was firmly and compactly put together. 
He fairly won the influence which he exerted in this com- 
munity and throughout the state, and no man's work in it 
was ever more faithfully and thoroughly done. He was ac- 
customed from his youth to struggle with difficulties, as in 
gaining his education and in journalism, and he carried into 
all his struggles the spirit of persistent endeavor and gen- 
erous ambition. A high sense of personal honor raised 
him above anything like sycophancy ; and amidst all discour- 
aging circumstances, and amidst all temptations to personal 



advantage, he preserved untouched and unweakened his 
independence of mind and soul. He never crooked "the 
pregnant hinges of the knee, where thrift might follow 
fawning." He never learned to encourage the vanity or to 
flatter the prejudices of other men ; but, always truthful, 
straightforward, and sincere, he did the duty God gave him 
to do, and spoke the word God gave him to speak, as well 
and faithfully and truthfully as he could. 

Here I may be permitted to pause a moment to dwell 
upon the excellent lesson which his example, in this respect, 
has to teach, especially to the young. There is always 
something encouraging and inspiring in the sight of a brave 
and honest struggle with the difficulties of life and the un- 
toward circumstances of one's lot, that a better manhood 
and a larger opportunity may be gained. The struggle may 
not always be successful ; but the glory is in the contest 
itself, when that is waged with a fearless spirit and a per- 
sistent resolution. That it was thus waged in the case of 
our friend we are certainly assured. He succeeded, too, in 
gaining the education which he desired. He succeeded in 
gaining a commanding position in the great warfare of the 
day. And that success was due to his honest and perse- 
vering endeavor. If larger successes were denied him, we 
know that the struggle was carried forward with clean hands 
and an upright intent. 

With this positiveness and strength of character were 
mingled a vein of gentleness and a warmth of heart which 
were particularly attractive to those who knew our friend 
well. In later years, when withdrawn from the scenes of 
political strife, he became more tolerant and genial. The 
asperities of life had been smoothed away. Better and 
more peaceful days dawned upon him ; and the last decade, 
before disease laid its heavy hand upon him, was marked 
by the quiet enjoyment of leisure, a happy intercourse with 
valued friends, the reading of good books, and such light 
employments as suited his disposition and tastes. He had 



10 

a pleasant and well-ordered home, where he was kindly 
served and ministered to, and he loved to bring beneath his 
hospitable roof those in whose company he could renew the 
past, and indulge the pleasing recollections of former scenes. 
No man was more thoughtful, loyal, firm, and constant in 
his friendships. He never forgot an act of kindness of 
which he was the object. He held fast to those who gave 
him their confidence, and permitted no cloud of misunder- 
standing or difference to dim the brightness or chill the 
warmth of his feelings. He secured the attachment and 
regard of many who only knew him through the jour- 
nal which he edited, and he won the sincere love of 
those who knew him in the more private and intimate re- 
lations of life. In a visit to Berne, which I made two years 
ago, I found some of the friends whom he had drawn around 
him during his residence there; and the impression he had 
made upon them was of a very pleasant as well as perma- 
nent nature. They recalled him with grateful recollections 
both of his urbanity and kindness of heart, and his straight- 
forwardness and integrity of character. 

His diplomatic career was creditable to his powers. Al- 
though the position did not give much opportunity for the 
display of great statesmanship, it was still very important 
at the time that it should be filled by a thoroughly patriotic 
man. The period of his residence in Switzerland was the 
time of our civil war, when strenuous efforts were making 
to misrepresent our cause and its character to the powers 
and people of Europe. Public sentiment, in the country 
to which Mr. Fogg was sent, was, as a matter of course, on 
the side of the North. But Switzerland is overrun with 
tourists of different nationalities, and it was necessary that 
that sentiment should be reinforced and strengthened by 
the presence of an American representative, whose patri- 
otism was as strong and earnest, and whose sentiments were 
as well pronounced, as were those of Mr. Fogg. In this 
respect he did a very valuable and important work, and his 



II 



influence, as I had occasion afterwards to know, extended 
beyond the bounds of the country to which he was ac- 
credited. To Americans visiting Switzerland he was very 
helpful and hospitable. His house was always open, and 
he rejoiced in every opportunity of welcoming his guests. 
He had a rare enjoyment of the beauty of nature, and his 
residence in the suburbs of Berne commanded a fine view 
of that magnificent panorama of the Bernese Alps and Ober- 
land, which every tourist carries away with him as one of 
the most pleasing memories of European travel. He loved 
to talk of the grandeur of the mountains and the beauty of 
the lakes. Although of more majestic proportions than the 
mountains of New Hampshire, and on a larger scale than 
its waters, his affection for his native state and his enjoy- 
ment of its own peculiar beauty were not in any way 
diminished. He was a thorough New Hampshire man, with 
all the best qualities of character that distinguish the men 
and women of this sterling commonwealth, and he knew 
and loved the good old state as few men did. He was in- 
terested in its history, in its educational institutions, in the 
schools wherein he had spent his youthful days, in his Alma 
Mater, in the men whom the state had produced, in its rocks 
and hills, its streams and lakes— in all that makes it, to 
those who have entered into an appreciation of its beauty, 
the spirit of its institutions, and the heart of its people, even 
more and better than the " Switzerland of America." I am 
sure that the men of New Hampshire will long mourn his 
death, and cherish the memory of his true and faithful life. 

I have spoken of the positiveness of his convictions. 
This trait of his character showed itself in his religious life. 
He was loyal and generous to his church, and that phase of 
Christian doctrine which it illustrates and exemplifies. He 
knew clearly what he believed, and he could give a reason 
for the faith that was in him. But there was something 
deeper than mere belief. There was a deep principle in his 
religious life, which underlay his thought and action, and 



12 

made him both helpful and considerate of other men and 
their views, and conscious of his obligation to serve the will 
of God according to the strength he had. Always a con- 
stant and interested attendant upon religious services, he 
was an appreciative hearer and a faithful doer of the Word. 
Of later years the gentler graces of religion became appar- 
ent in a deeper trust and a more cheerful and buoyant faith. 
He bore the ills that came upon him with an exemplary pa- 
tience, and while he felt that there was no more for him to 
do in life, he accepted the state of weakness which had been 
ordered for him with a spirit of acquiescence and submis- 
sion which it is now grateful to recall. It was no small 
trial to a man of his mental activity to feel that his powers 
could no longer respond to the demands made upon them. 
But I think he bore the trial with an admirable composure. 
When, at the call of a friend, he would light up with the 
old-time expression for a moment, it would seem as though 
he might again go forth among men. With a fund of 
pleasant anecdote and reminiscence he would endeavor to 
brighten the interview, and one would almost forget his 
weakness in the cordiality of his greeting and the grateful 
appreciation of the kindly interest that had prompted the 
visit. But he was saddened by the loss of his former asso- 
ciates and companions in the early struggles, notably of his 
friend Amos Tuck, with whom he had most intimate rela- 
tions ; and he could not but look forward to his release from 
earthly care and physical infirmity with a certain feeling of 
hope for a better and happier life beyond the grave, and a 
longing to be at rest. 

So the end has come ; but the end of earth is the begin- 
ning of a new and higher state. The fine and vigorous 
mind, clouded for a time, has again become clear and strong. 
The warm and earnest heart has found its more congenial 
sphere. The love for truth and right reaches its fruition. 
The struggling, weary spirit has entered upon an eternal 
peace ! 



GEORGE GILMAN EOGG. 

BY FRANK B. SANBORN. 

[From the Springfield Republican of Oct. lo, 1881.] 

I would pay the tribute of a brother journaUst and an old 
friend to George Oilman Fogg, the sturdy New Hamp- 
shire editor and organizer, to whom was due, more than to 
any other man, the political regeneration of that " Switzer- 
land of America" thirty-six years ago, when it seemed to 
be hopelessly given over to the cause of American slavery. 
Mr. Fogg was a young man then, and he lived to be an old 
man, — but he never merited the thanks of the whole North 
so much as in the period of ten years from 1845 to 1855, 
when New Hampshire was converted and reconverted from 
her pro-slavery idols, until the little state became as sure 
and steadfast in her political faith as Massachusetts or 
Vermont. What had been her previous record we know 
from the scornful sayings of the anti-slavery leaders. Em- 
erson wrote to William Henry Channing. in 1845,— 

" The God who made New Hampshire 
Taunted the lofty land with little men,— 
Small bat and wren, 
House in the oak : 
If earth-fire cleave 

The upheaved land and bury the folk, 
The Southern crocodile would grieve. 
For who. with accent bolder. 
Dare praise the freedom-loving mountaineer ? 
I found by thee, O rushing Contoocook ! 
And in thy valley, Agiochook ! 
The jackals of the negro-holder." 



14 

The year before this, in 1844, Garrison, lamenting the 
suspension of the little newspaper published in the New 
Hampshire capital, by Rogers, " The Old Man of the 
Mountain," had said in the Liberator, with much bitterness, — 
" On the question of negro emancipation, the heart of New 
Hampshire is as hard as her own granite ; she is as desper- 
ately perverted as it is in the power of corrupt priests and 
political demagogues to make her. So hardened is she 
that she cannot blush ; and as for repentance, she seems 
almost to be given over to ' believe a lie that she may be 
damned.' If anything yet remains to be done to give pro- 
tection and perpetuity to the accursed slave system of the 
South, she will be prompt to do it, if it be in her power. 
Such traitors to true Democracy as Atherton and Wood- 
bury she delights to honor, and spurns with brutal con- 
tempt all those who would save her from defilement and 
shame. She does not belong to New England, but should 
cut from her moorings and float southward, to find a geo- 
graphical position between Texas and Louisiana." This 
was sharp enough ; but the agitator, pausing to catch his 
breath, added, — " Yet she may not be wholly beyond recov- 
ery ; she has some of the choicest spirits to be found any- 
where on the wide earth, and there is hope while such dwell 
on her political soil." Even while he wrote, the ferment 
had begun which was to change all this subserviency of the 
New Hampshire Democrats into a degree of independence 
such as was then almost unknown. Two years later, the 
revolting Democrat, John P. Hale of Dover, was sent to 
the United States Senate, the first avowed anti-slavery sen- 
ator, free from the yoke of party, who ever sat in that body. 
His election was the result of his own boldness, reinforced 
by the enthusiasm of other independent Democrats, and by 
the support which George Fogg's newspaper, well-named 
the " Independent Democrat," gave to the new movement. 
Mr. Fogg was then a young lawyer in scanty practice at 
Gilmanton ; but he went to Concord as editor in 1845, and 



15 

from that time forward until the emancipation of the slaves 
he directed the politics of New Hampshire as effectively as 
Isaac Hill had done in Jackson's time, or Franklin Pierce 
in the days of Tyler and Polk, — though with less profit and 
glory to himself. He had Pierce as an opponent for some 
ten years, four of which the New Hampshire Democrat was 
president of the United States, — but in the end Pierce and 
his solid phalanx of voters were beaten, and the state 
ranged herself definitely on the right side in the great 
contest. 

The first triumph of the independent Democrats was won 
in March, 1846, when they formed a coalition with the 
Whigs, and carried the state election by a majority large 
enough to make Anthony Colby governor, John P. Hale 
senator, and George G. Fogg secretary of state. By the same 
legislature which did all this, Colonel Jo Cilley of Notting- 
ham, a veteran of the War of 1812, and half brother of 
Hawthorne's friend, Jonathan Cilley of Maine, was sent to 
the United States Senate for nine months, from June, 1846, 
to March, 1847, when Hale took his seat. Col. Cilley 
is still living, at the age of ninety or more, and is one of 
the few survivors of the men actively engaged in that 
contest against " the central clique," with Frank Pierce at 
its head. When the first victory was secured in the con- 
test (March, 1846), the poet Whittier, living on the borders 
of New Hampshire, and warmly interested in its politics, 
wrote a burlesque poem, in the form of a letter from Frank 
Pierce to Moses Norris of Pittsfield (then a leading Demo- 
cratic congressman, noted for his pro-slavery sentiments), 
which was printed by Elizur Wright in the Boston Chrono- 
type, and had great vogue in New Hampshire, though 
never acknowledged among the poems of Whittier. It has 
recently been reprinted, however, with his consent, in a 
Boston newspaper ; and no doubt the aged poet takes a cer- 
tain pride in it, as well he may. There is a racy free- 
dom and coarseness about it characteristic of the men 



i6 

whose feelings it undertook to portray, but it has the un- 
mistakable movement of Whittier's flowing verse. It 
begins, — 

*' 'T is over, Moses ! all is lost ! 

I hear the bells a-ringing, 
Of Pharaoh and his Red Sea host — 

I hear the Free-Wills singing. 
We 're routed, Moses, horse and foot, 

If there be truth in figures. 
With federal Whigs in hot pursuit. 

And Hale, and all the ' niggers.'" 

Then the mortified Pierce goes on to mention the gloomy- 
news that preceded this calamity, naming persons and 
places familiar then in New Hampshire, and not yet wholly 
forgotten : — 

" Our Belknap brother heard with awe 

The Congo minstrels playing; 
At Pittsfield, Reuben Leavitt saw 

The ghost of Storrs a-praying; 
And Carroll's woods were sad to see, 

With black-winged crows a-darting; 
And Black Snout looked on Ossipee, 

New glossed with Day & Martin. 

" We thought the ' Old Man of the Notch ' 

His face seemed changing wholly ; 
His lips seemed thick, his nose seemed flat, 

His misty hair looked woolly. 
And Coos teamsters, shrieking, fled 

The metamorphosed figure : 
' Just look ! — that old stone cuss,' they said. 



The allusion here, of course, was to the Franconia "Old 
Man" — the "Great Stone Face" of Hawthorne, which has 
made such an impression on the political mind of New 
Hampshire — while Black Snout and Ossipee are two moun- 
tains in the range between the towns of Sandwich and 
Ossipee, along which the Bearcamp river drains down into 
the Saco, through regions long familiar to Whittier. Reu- 
ben Leavitt was a cousin of Moses Norris (and, I may con- 
fess, of my own), and as sheriff had arrested an abolitionist 



17 



preacher while engaged in prayer— an incident which was 
very effectively turned to account by the anti-slavery men. 
George Fogg had grown up among these people ; he knew 
them root and branch, and they knew him ; he could meet 
them therefore with their own weapons and on their own 
ground. His newspaper was a weekly, for in those days few 
persons read the daily papers, but waited till the end of the 
week's toil brought them leisure to peruse the one cherished 
weekly. He gave his readers sound doctrine, to begin with ; 
then he supplied such news as they needed, and a miscel- 
lany of general information and literature, scanty enough 
when compared with what newspapers now can furnish, but 
welcome to the boy by the farm-house fire, or the youth in 
the shoe-shop who loved to learn. I found it serviceable to 
my boyish love of literature; and it was in the Independent 
Democrat in 1849, that I first tasted the unspeakable joy 
of seeing my verses first printed— a translation from the 
German to begin with, and, by and by, some original verses 
such as a youth of eighteen could write. Mr. Fogg knew 
the value of literature, though he overrated this particular 
minstrel. He made his journal indispensable by such 
means, and gave it a wide circulation within the state ; while 
at the same time, and by the cooperation of its readers, he 
helped to organize his party in every school-district of New 
Hampshire. The result we all know,— but most of the ac- 
companying circumstances have passed from remembrance 
with the lapse of years. He was one of those few New 
England men who planned and wrought for the nomination 
of Abraham Lincoln in i860, when most of us were fasci- 
nated with Seward or some other well-known candidate. He 
brought Lincoln to New Hampshire in the winter preced- 
ing, and gave him the opportunity to make one of his great 
speeches in Concord, which was then duly reported in his 
Democrat. As a consequence, he carried the New Hamp- 
shire delegation at Chicago for Lincoln, and thus contributed 
materially toward his nomination. In the campaign follow- 



2 



ing, Mr. Fogg was secretary of the National Republican 
Committee, and was thus brought into close communication 
with Lincoln, who knew his value, and greatly relied on 
him at some critical points. He was honored by Lincoln 
with the appointment of Minister to Switzerland, where he 
remained during the civil war, and was of much service to 
the country. 

It is to be hoped that Mr. Fogg, before his death, put his 
reminiscences of Lincoln, Seward, Greeley, etc., into a form 
in which they will be preserved and published ; for in some 
matters he was a confidant and eye-witness whose testimony 
was invaluable. Before his paralytic attack, some two 
years ago, he had proposed writing out these recollections, 
but did not ; and when he was no longer able to write, but 
retained his clear and accurate memory, he strove to impress 
these things by recital on the recollection of his friends. 
I shall not soon forget with what earnestness, when Mr. 
Bird and I visited him in March, 1880, he persisted in tell- 
ing us the story of Lincoln's first cabinet appointments, the 
part played by Seward in that affair, and the wise way in 
which Lincoln checkmated him and carried out his original 
plan for a representative cabinet. We feared to fatigue 
him by the conversation, and sought to leave him, but he 
held us, through many pauses and returns, until he had fin- 
ished the main part of his relation. I visited him again in 
the summer of 1881, and heard more of these reminiscen- 
ces, — but he had then lost in some degree the power of 
will, which, in all his life, was so marked a feature, and add- 
ed so much to the endowment of capacity that nature gave 
him. It was agreed between Mr. Bird and myself that we 
should, if possible, draw out these reminiscences for publi- 
cation ; and on my last visit, meeting Hon. James W. Patter- 
son at our friend's house, I urged upon him, too, the import- 
ance of preserving such memorials of a great national crisis. 
He agreed with me, and perhaps did something towards it. 
I have since heard that there were some letters from Lincoln 



19 

to Fogg, which have no doubt been preserved, and should 
be printed. 

Mr. Fogg was not an original or highly gifted man, as 
such things are usually rated. His origin was humble, his 
education was delayed, and he was completing his college 
course at Dartmouth at an age when some men are well ad- 
vanced in an active career. But he possessed that tenacity 
of purpose, that settled force of will, which is native to New 
Hampshire men, and makes them the most stubborn adver- 
saries, the most sturdy supporters. In his political cam- 
paigns he enlisted for the war, and gave no truce to his op- 
ponents until they were beaten ; indeed, he was averse to 
any parley with his antagonists, but was perpetually charg- 
ing upon them. In the management of a party, however, 
he was most judicious, keeping the main point in view, and 
was able to combine men for a special purpose better than 
most can. He sought little for himself, and was not much 
annoyed by the self-seeking of others, provided it did not 
interfere with the objects of party organization. To young 
men he was genial and instructive, toward his associates 
plain-dealing and sagacious. He wrote well and talked 
well, but had little turn for public speaking. He and his 
friends, among whom were many more illustrious than him- 
self, gave his native state an importance in the politics of 
the nation that it will perhaps never hold again, and they 
did it by the most honest and legitimate means ; by cour- 
age in opinion, persuasion of the people, and a firm trust in 
the soundness of the popular heart. In times such as we 
have seen of late, when money and official power have 
largely taken the place of argument and popular agitation, 
it is, refreshing to turn back to such leaders of opinion, — who 
had no arts but manly arts, who struck hard but struck fair 
blows, and by whose success foes were reconciled, and not 
friends demoralized and ruined. 



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